PARTICIPANTS128 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms (but no depressive disorder), who had been prescribed escitalopram, citalopram, sertraline, or paroxetine for three months or more. We excluded patients with severe somatic disease or terminal illness, or who were unable to take tablets or capsules as prescribed.

INTERVENTIONS Antidepressant treatment was discontinued over one week in 63 patients, and continued in 68 patients. We assessed patients at baseline, four, seven, 13, and 25 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS Discontinuation of antidepressant treatment in patients with dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms leads to an increase in depressive symptoms, compared with those patients who continue with treatment.